Attackers Storm Kenya University Campus, Dozens Injured

April 2 2015, 15:33

Kenyan police officers take positions outside the Garissa University College as an ambulance carrying the injured going to a hospital, during an attack by gunmen in Garissa, Kenya, April 2, 2015.Gunmen have taken students hostage and killed at least 14 people at a university in north-eastern Kenya, aid workers and police say.

About 30 others were wounded after attackers stormed a university in Garissa town. Troops have surrounded the campus and are engaging the gunmen.

Witnesses spoke of the masked attackers firing indiscriminately and there are fears the casualty toll could rise.

Militant Islamist group al-Shabab said it carried out the attack.

Muslim and non-Muslim hostages had been separated, and 15 of the Muslim had been freed, said a spokesman for the group, which is part of al-Qaeda.

Exchange of fire

The militants, who have their headquarters in neighbouring Somalia, have regularly targeted Kenya.

About five masked gunmen are said to have stormed the university.

A policeman at the scene told Reuters news agency that some students had been taken hostage.

"We can't tell how many but they are many since the college was in session," the unnamed policeman is quoted as saying.

The Kenyan Red Cross said about 50 students had been "safely freed", but an unknown number were still being held, AFP news agency reports.

Security forces were now trying to flush out the gunmen, a police statement posted on Twitter said.

It urged people to stay away from the area. The statement did not confirm that hostages had been taken.

Two guards were confirmed killed at the main university gate, with two policemen and a student among the injured. But eyewitnesses spoke of many casualties inside the building.

I can hear gunfire from inside the campus. Ambulances are rushing in and out with the wounded.

One teacher told me some students managed to run away from the gunfire, and came to her house early in the morning to seek shelter.

But a huge crowd has gathered outside the house, mostly of people who are worried that friends and relatives may be still trapped inside.

Some of them are trying to enter the campus but the security forces are holding them back. Troops have also surrounded the main hospital, restricting public access to it as medical staff battle to cope with the wounded.

Most shops in Garissa are shut, and people are staying at home.

The town's hospital has been sealed off.

The gunmen reportedly ordered students to lie down on the floor, but at least 27 are known to have escaped and are at a military facility.